Arts and crafts is an amazing way to bond with children

In this fast life where Husband/Wife see each other on Facebook and twitter and the kids happily spend most of the time watching cartoons at home; as both parents are not home, we also have some Arts and Crafts fanatics who love to bond with their child by doing arts and crafts rather than watching TV with them and in turn spending some great time with the children.

Shruti Bhat, is a Quality Lead in a leading MNC during the day and an avid crafter during the night. She is originally from Belgaum where she completed her schooling from M V Herwadkar and she did her engineering from GIT Belgaum and currently stays at Bangalore with her husband and 5 year old daughter nicknamed Lil P on her blog.

Shruti’s blog focuses on the art and craft activities she does with her daughter. “It’s an amazing way to bond with her,” she said. At the beginning she wrote only about the crafts she did with her kid but now accepts user submissions as well.

In a quick interview to this blog Shruti said “ I have always been interested in arts and crafts. As a kid, I remember watching my mother paint exquisite bedsheets and embroider. I think that was when my love for arts was born. My blog started off as an online diary and when people started commenting and appreciating some of the crafts that I made with Lil P, I was inspired to try some more crafts. The monthly Artsy-Craftsy challenge was born. Its been 2 years since and there has been no looking back.”

When we asked her, who was your inspiration? Shruti said,”My mother and my grand mother both have an artist in themselves. As both mt parents were working, every vacation they used to enroll me into camps, art classes where I developed the art a bit more and also a love for it.”

She loves working with charcoals but it takes too much time and with a 5 year old demanding constant attention, that’s totally ruled out. She is slowly exploring acrylics & craft activities that she can do with her daughter.

“ Every evening doing crafts is a kind of ritual. Her dad has to tell her a story & I have to craft with her. We love to search the net for inspiration & then the princess chooses what she wants to make that day. My Lil P loves crafts & thankfully she has a calm nature and will follow instructions for safety and keeping the mess in control. ” Shruti added.

She mostly blogs about her daily life. A few crafts that we do, Our travel tales, Recipes. She also hosts a popular monthly artsy-craftsy challenge that focuses on a crafting theme and accepts user submissions. It is still very much a personal blog but the journey over the last 3 years has been very rewarding.

When we asked about the support from your husband? Shruti laughingly, “ he tolerates my mood swings and my cries about “It has to go on my blog right now” kind of demands.”

She advices the parents to Take small steps, each kid is different and so there is no fixed formula. Try age appropriate crafts, get a little messy and basically have fun. Let the kids get their hands dirty, use stuff lying in your home. Culture and Folk crafts can also be taught to kids with art. After all this is done next important thing is display of the crafts once your child has done it. Appreciation and creative freedom is the key to develop a child’s interest.

When asked what are your thoughts on this blog? Shruti said “I love AAB and how it has evolved over the years. I esp loved your series on Stars of Belgaum and the Belgaum History and trivia. Even though I’m away from Belgaum, I stay connected thanks to AAB. Thank you for featuring me here and keep up the good work you are doing.”
You can reach her on FB and now on Twitter too.